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Legal experts weigh in on latest motion filed for Zachary Holly

28-year-old Zachary Holly, the accused killer of Jersey Bridgeman, is charged with rape, capital murder, kidnapping and residential burglary charges. Holly is being held at the Benton County Jail without bond.

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"In a case where they're asking for the death penalty you would like to think everyone is doing the best job they can to get it right," said Michael Dodson, a lawyer with Nolan, Caddell, & Reynolds.

"You don't want to be in a situation where you left something on the table and your client could be executed,"said Dodson.

Dodson is not associated with this case, but has defended men in capital murder trials before.

"As far as mental evaluations go, you want to file this because you want to make sure you protected your client's rights, you've done everything you can for them," said Dodson.

Dodson said the mental evaluation aims to find out two things: whether Holly understands what he's been accused of and if he's able to help with his own defense.

"If the defendant can't do either one of those then they're not competent to stand trial. If you don't understand what you've done, you're not competent to stand trial. If you do theoretically understand what you've done, but you can't assist in your own defense, well you're not competent to stand trial,"said Dodson.

According to court documents, if the motion is granted, Holly will go to the state hospital for 30 days.

"They check for to see if there's different things wrong. They check to see if someone's trying to be deceptive. You can't just go to the state hospital and act like there's something wrong with you, they have ways, the test is designed to find that," said Dodson.